International Respect for Chickens Day Honors Roscoe the Rooster

United Poultry Concerns Will Leaflet in Takoma Park on Sunday May 8

Machipongo, Va. - United Poultry Concerns will leaflet in Takoma Park near Roscoe the Rooster’s memorial statue on Sunday May 8, from noon to 2 p.m. Roscoe’s statue honors a rooster who for years was tenderly cared for by Takoma Park residents until his death in 1999.

Former Takoma Park resident Karen Davis, president of United Poultry Concerns, sat on the committee that selected Takoma Park artist Normon Green and his charming statue, which he created to celebrate Roscoe and the love that Roscoe inspired in those who knew him. Roscoe is enshrined in Takoma Park’s Town Square, where UPC president Karen Davis joined other committee members and the artist in speaking of Roscoe at the unveiling ceremony in 2000.

Sadly, while Takoma Park honors Roscoe as the town mascot who "made us smile and brightened our days" – the inscription on Roscoe’s plaque – this community, which traditionally has embraced peace-loving, nonviolent, vegetarian values, is going mainstream, according to The Washington Post.

Next to the statue of Roscoe, a farmers market is selling corpses of Roscoe’s brothers and sisters. "Many people, including longtime Takoma Park residents, share my disappointment," says UPC president Karen Davis. "I hope the lapsed vegetarians and others in Takoma Park will rethink eating and having their children eat birds and other animals who led dismal lives and died terrible deaths, regardless of what the label says."

Our Takoma Park leafleting is part of our International Respect for Chickens Day activities, designed to draw public attention to the plight and delight of chickens. On Sunday May 8th we’ll bring our INTERNATIONAL RESPECT FOR CHICKENS DAY banner to Takoma Park. The idea for International Respect for Chickens Day traces to famed Le Show host and star of The Simpsons, Harry Shearer, who proclaimed Sunday May 14, 2000 – Mothers Day – National Respect the Chicken Day because hens are justly praised as exemplars of devoted motherhood, just as the rooster, according to the 16th-century writer Aldrovandi, "is the best and truest father of a family."